In this short four minute interview President Carter was asked if there was one thing he regretted not doing when he was President. His answer?
He wishes he had known more about the "value, and efficiency and effectiveness of preventative medicine". He commented how his whole family had problems with cancer due to smoking cigarettes, but that he had not been aware enough about the importance of preventative medicine.
In his term as president he had solar panels installed on the White House (which were later regrettably removed by President Reagan). Who knows what other wonderful things he would have gotten underway had he been aware of the benefits of preventative medicine. Oh, well, we won't know in this lifetime. Perhaps in an alternate reality?
And he hasn't stopped with his good intentions and good works in his days post-White House. He is well-known for his involvement in Habitat for Humanity. And The Carter Center has been dedicated to eliminating a long-standing problem with the Guinea worm in the Third World. See their website for more information and watch the interview below.
Former President Carter's organization is on the verge of eradicating Guinea worm disease
CURRENT TV - Cenk Uygur sits down with former President Jimmy Carter to talk about the Carter Center and its work to wipe out the Guinea worm, a water parasite that affects many impoverished countries. “The Carter Center really fills vacuums in the world,” Carter says. “[Guinea worm] was a disease that not many public officials knew about — it was in the most remote villages in the world. And it was a very difficult disease to know how to correct. We figured all of those answers out … and we are right on the verge of eradicating this disease.”
“Peace deal in the Middle East, being president of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize — but wiping out a disease from the earth, does that top all of them?” Cenk asks. “In a personal way, it does,” Carter replies, citing the hundreds of millions in developing nations that are affected by the parasite.
